The Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) 2012 is an international, multidisciplinary conference for the presentation and discussion of current research in the theory and application of computational methods in the problems of biological significance. Presentations are rigorously peer-reviewed and are published in an archival proceedings volume. PSB 2012 will be held on January 3 – 7, 2012 in Kohala Coast, Hawaii. Tutorials and workshops will be offered prior to the start of the conference. PSB 2012 will bring together top researchers from the US, the Asian Pacific nations, and countries around the world to exchange research results and address open issues in all aspects of computational biology. It is a forum for the presentation of work in databases, algorithms, interfaces, visualization, modeling, and other computational methods as applied to biological problems, with emphasis on the applications in the data-rich areas of molecular biology. The PSB has been designed to be responsive to the need for critical mass in sub-disciplines within biocomputing. For that reason, it is the only meeting whose sessions are defined dynamically each year in response to specific proposals. PSB sessions are organized by leaders of research in biocomputing's “hot topics.” In this way, the meeting provides an early forum for serious examination of emerging methods and approaches in this rapidly changing field.